A Sugar Cookie recipe for Valentine's Day.....

Today I am recovering.....from a solid week of non-stop activity.  We had our church Ladies Retreat this past weekend.  I had been in charge of organizing it and it was such a blessing, but I am feeling like I need a few days of twiddling my thumbs and doing nothing.  It is gray and dreary today, and I am still in my jammies.  Doing absolutely. nothing. except visiting blogs and reading all that I missed out on.  I read a few blogs last week, very few, and made less comments.  I blogged a couple of times, but sure felt like I was unconnected.  I was busy....busy, busy.  I had the Retreat as well as an end of the month SLaHOME party that was also LOTS of fun! Thanks, Sharon!
My daughter wants to make sugar cookies when she comes home......I have a Wilton cookie recipe with icing that is SO easy.  If you've read my blog a while,  you may have heard me talk about it before.  I like it for two reasons: a)you don't have to chill the dough and wait for 2 hours before you can cut out the cookies, and b) the icing dries hard and shiny and will store easily, even if you have to stack them.  For these reasons, these have been my "go-to" sugar cut-out cookies for some time now.  I thought I'd share it with you.  Obviously you can decorate them using any method you like, from just simply iced, to adorned with sprinkles, dragees, piped icing, etc.  It's your cookie and you can decide! ;)
Here's the recipe:

Easy Roll Out cookies

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 t. vanilla

2 t. baking powder

2 3/4 cup flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with electric mixer. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. (may add butter extract here if using margarine) Add baking powder and flour (mixed together first) one cup at a time, mixing after each addition. The dough will be very stiff; blend in the last flour by hand. Do not chill. Dough may be tinted with paste icing color for colored cookies. For chocolate cookies, stir in 3 oz. melted unsweetened cocoa. If dough is too stiff, add water a teaspoon at a time.

Divide dough into two balls. On a floured surface, roll each ball in a circle about 12" in diameter and 1/8 inch thick. Dip cookie cutters in flour before each use. Bake cookies on ungreased sheet on top rack of oven for 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. If you like cookies that are more like tea cakes, make the cookies a little thicker.

Cookie Icing Recipe (dries to a glossy, hard finish and tastes good, too!

1 c. sifted confectioner's sugar

2 t. milk

2 t. light corn syrup

Place sugar and milk in a small bowl. Stir until mixed. Add corn syrup and mix well. For filling in areas, use thinned icing (add small amount of corn syrup until desired consistency). Tint with paste icing color or very small amount of food coloring.

This is a Wilton recipe and I've used it for years.  The picture above is not a picture of OUR cookies....but it is an inspirational pic to go by.  I'll ask my daughter if she wants hers to look like that!  Have a good day, and stay warm!!!!